Post by JC on Apr 20, 2005 8:54:42 GMT -5
Well in actuality this is number two. Number one was relegated to the do-over pile. For the first batch I tried some blue tiger-eye and carefully followed the directions that came with the tumbler. THAT was a BIG mistake. It was after those poor results that I discovered this site.
After reading and lurking here I felt I was ready for my first "real" attempt. But being a beginner I still stumbled at the gate. Surfing the many sites that sell rough I came across some aqua-marine at minerungems.com Hey that's my birthstone, that should be great! Well after I published some questions on this site (okay after I purchased the stuff) I received some "helpful" advice from connrock, something to the effect of "you bought cr*p" or "you'd need a bucket full of gold to purchase quality aquamarine rough to tumble!" Thanks connrock, and you were right.
Undeterred (heck I bought 10lbs of rough) I decided to use it as a learning experience. This was the rough I started with.
And here is what it looked like after the initial grind using 80 graded for about 2.5 months.
As you can tell the quality of the rough wasn't that great. I still had many fracture lines after 80. THe fractures were smooth to the touch even with a fingernail. Next time I'm going to try some CA.
Well here was my recipe.
2.5 months 80grit
20 days 120
10 days 200
10 days 400
10 days 800
10 days 1000
10 days Tripoli
10 Days CeriumOx optical graded(99.9 pure)
I tumbled for ten days because I'm using 220VAC @50hz through a transformer so I tumbled longer to make up for the slower speed. In between grits I tumbled 24 hours in ivory soap/borax. I added plastic pellets around 800. I did get a bit of a shine out of the Tripoli. I peeked after day two in the cerium and was shocked to see all the fractures nicely outlined in ceriumox. The white cerium mix really penetrated the fractures and I was pretty disappointed. The nice shine I had with the Tripoli was also gone at day two, hmmmmmmm, needless to say I wasn't in a good mood. Oh well I shouldn't have peeked. That cerium really covered the rocks well so I let them roll for 24 hours in ivory soap/borax mixture with a good helping of plastic pellets. Today, crossing my fingers, I opened the tumbler, dried the rocks and here is what I got.
I'm pretty happy. Yes there are WAY too many fractures. I should have thrown the whole lot away months ago. But thanks to this site and all you guys I now know I can do this and get great results. Just wait till my next batch.
After reading and lurking here I felt I was ready for my first "real" attempt. But being a beginner I still stumbled at the gate. Surfing the many sites that sell rough I came across some aqua-marine at minerungems.com Hey that's my birthstone, that should be great! Well after I published some questions on this site (okay after I purchased the stuff) I received some "helpful" advice from connrock, something to the effect of "you bought cr*p" or "you'd need a bucket full of gold to purchase quality aquamarine rough to tumble!" Thanks connrock, and you were right.
Undeterred (heck I bought 10lbs of rough) I decided to use it as a learning experience. This was the rough I started with.
And here is what it looked like after the initial grind using 80 graded for about 2.5 months.
As you can tell the quality of the rough wasn't that great. I still had many fracture lines after 80. THe fractures were smooth to the touch even with a fingernail. Next time I'm going to try some CA.
Well here was my recipe.
2.5 months 80grit
20 days 120
10 days 200
10 days 400
10 days 800
10 days 1000
10 days Tripoli
10 Days CeriumOx optical graded(99.9 pure)
I tumbled for ten days because I'm using 220VAC @50hz through a transformer so I tumbled longer to make up for the slower speed. In between grits I tumbled 24 hours in ivory soap/borax. I added plastic pellets around 800. I did get a bit of a shine out of the Tripoli. I peeked after day two in the cerium and was shocked to see all the fractures nicely outlined in ceriumox. The white cerium mix really penetrated the fractures and I was pretty disappointed. The nice shine I had with the Tripoli was also gone at day two, hmmmmmmm, needless to say I wasn't in a good mood. Oh well I shouldn't have peeked. That cerium really covered the rocks well so I let them roll for 24 hours in ivory soap/borax mixture with a good helping of plastic pellets. Today, crossing my fingers, I opened the tumbler, dried the rocks and here is what I got.
I'm pretty happy. Yes there are WAY too many fractures. I should have thrown the whole lot away months ago. But thanks to this site and all you guys I now know I can do this and get great results. Just wait till my next batch.
that's a mighty purdy batch! They really stand out against the black background too!
